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Jessamine Expedition
"All well. Progress swift. Morale high. Transifacients seem a tad closer today." - Jessamine log dated September E6Y436. The Jessamine Expedition was an early Flemish naval voyage undertaken in E6Y435 in an attempt to trace the source of the Nomad Blight . The expedition is credited with introducing Blightweed to the Phlogistonian mainland, as well as discovering and subsequently destroying the Northwest Passage. Contemporary ecologists rank the expedition as the worst xenobiotic disaster ever recorded. Background By the early 430s the Eye Blight was largely in remission in tracked areas, and spontaneous spatio-temporal vortice formation was lower than it had been in decades. A royal expedition was chartered to sail past the scientific outposts on Svalbard into the uncharted arctic waters where the blight was then presumed to have originated. The Jessamine, a pre-blight bomb ketch, was refitted as a double-planked icebreaker and sent north on morning of May the nineteenth under the command of Captain Ifan Franklin. It would not be seen again for more than three years. Ship's Log The Jessamine's log was recovered from the ship after northern Phlogistonia was reclaimed from the blight in E6Y450 . Presented here are collected entries written as the ship slowly meandered more than 600 miles off course: *July 30, 435: "Whaler off the bow this morning. Likely the last we'll see for the year." *Oct 8, 435: "Ice beginning to slow progress. Lower hull stress levels a concern for boiler engineers." *June XX, 436: "Second watch reported strange disturbance in southern sky. Course altered to investigate." *Aug 22, 436: "Ice cleared after week's delay. Called in sleds from hunt to continue course." *Oct 19, 436: "Definite vortice formation off starboard for some days. Crew beggining to feel affects. Rum ration increased to ease stress." *Jan 1, 437: "No more vortices. No more clouds. No more sky. No more ship." *April 15, 437: "Crew purple. Morale high." *May 2, 437: "Ekspediton sic success! No Blight to worry you all. COMING HOME NOW." Historians estimate that near the end of E6436 the ship was exposed to a blight storm and infected somewhere off the coast of Baffin Island. By spring of the following year most of the crew had succumbed to blight madness and wandered away across the ice. Many interpreters claim the log's final entries were not the ramblings of an insane first mate but a deliberate deception on the part of the Blightweed that had overaken the ship. Return The Jessamine drifted into Phlogistonian waters in E6439 followed by a massive wave of aquatic Blightweed using the ship as a trawl anchor. The vessel's unexpected return allowed the weed to quickly overtake ground defenses and begin spreading across the mainland, igniting a decade-long struggle with the plant and setting the stage for Toothweed's ultimate failure as an agricultural product. Today the Jessamine's return route can be easily noted from the line of old-growth Blightweed that stretches between Baffin Bay and the Barents sea. Citations Blightweed Eye Blight (Nomad Blight) Meteorological Phenomena of the Blight Toothweed